Last December, Colum­bia County officials believ­ed construction of a skateboard park and BMX track would take 120 days to complete.

The project has taken months longer than expected, but Barry Smith says the opening is only weeks away.

“We expect everything to be finished by mid-December,” said Smith, the director of the Columbia County Community and Leisure Services Division. “We hope to have a small ribbon-cutting when it’s done, then a grand-opening in March.”

Engaged young people are the future of politics and an ambitious 12-year-old from Grovetown is leading that charge, with an eye (for now) on the state Capitol.

“I’ve always had a big interest in the decisions that are made by our elected officials,” said C.J. Pearson, the student body president at Columbia Middle School. “The decisions that are made today will have a big impact on the future generations.”

Columbia County authorities are trying to identify men they believe stole electronics from the Evans Walmart last month.

On Nov. 3, an assistant manager of the store on Washington Road called police stating he saw three men steal two speakers from the store. He said he saw what he believed to be two men and a teen select the two speakers, then huddle around each other, according to a Columbia County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

They put an empty box back on the shelf and left. The men drove away in an early-2000s model white Ford F150 with a Georgia tag.

University Hospital officials are strongly considering an appeal of last week’s decision by the state Department of Community Health to award a Certificate of Need to Georgia Regents Medical Center to build Columbia County’s first hospital.

Ed Burr, senior vice president Legal Affairs, said it will ultimately be up to University Health Care System’s board to decide whether to appeal, but the announcement from Doctors Hospital that it would appeal state’s decision makes it much more likely that University will as well.

The following accounts were taken from Columbia County Sheriff’s Office incident reports:

Caller harasses patrol workers

Two employees of the Georgia State Patrol office in Grovetown told deputies Sunday they have been repeatedly harassed by an anonymous caller.

A supervisor and an employee said that they have ongoing issues with a woman caller. On Sunday, the woman called 10 times on the main State Patrol office dispatch phone line. She accused the female supervisor and female employee of committing numerous crimes in various states.

Columbia County is holding its first Christmas in the Park festival Saturday.

The family holiday festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Evans Towne Center Park in Evans. It will be followed by the county tree lighting ceremony in the evening.

The festival includes ice skating on an artificial ice surface that can accommodate up to 60 skaters, a live nativity scene and more than 35 arts and crafts vendors, said Lindsey Waddell, a county community events specialist.